Snow Country (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Yasunari Kawabata
- First Published: 1947
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The mid-1930’s
- Setting: A hot-spring resort in Niigata Prefecture, Japan
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Prostitution or prostitutes, 1930’s, Beauty, Women, Japan or Japanese people, Geishas
- Locales: Japan, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Characters Discussed
Shimamura, an idle man from Tokyo, perhaps in early middle age, who makes a series of visits to a village in Japan’s “snow country.” There, he takes advantage of the hot springs and breathtaking scenery. He also strikes up an ambiguously spiritual and sensual relationship with Komako, a young apprentice geisha. Married with children, Shimamura is unable to make a lifetime commitment to Komako. More to the point, he is unable to invest himself emotionally in their affair, such as it is, or, it seems, in any aspect of his life. An amateur writer on...
[The entire page is 580 words long]
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